[Drug supplies in primary care units at the Ministry of Health in Mexico]. / Abastecimiento de medicamentos en unidades de primer nivel de atención de la Secretaría de Salud de México.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the availability of some essential drugs (ED) at primary health care units of the Mexican Ministry of Health (SSA), using data from a research work conducted in 1996 and 1997. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A random sample of the 18 sanitary jurisdictions of states participating in the Extension of Coverage Program (ECP) was drawn. All primary care units from selected jurisdictions were evaluated through an inspection visit, using a checklist that included 36 ED. In phase I of the analysis, the absolute number and proportion of units without a single item of any of the 36 drugs were calculated. In the units with available drugs, the median of the distribution was also calculated. In phase II, the medians according to the type of health unit and state was obtained. The statistic utilized for the comparison of the medians was the Scheffé test with one way variance analysis. In addition, the drugs were classified according to their therapeutic indication and the medians and proportion of available drugs were calculated. The differences in proportion were evaluated with the statistic chi 2. RESULTS: During the visits, on average, 18 of the 36 drugs included in the list of the study were found in the health units. The availability of antibiotics, antituberculosis drugs, and antimalarial drugs was particularly poor. In contrast, oral rehydration salts, family planning methods and vaccines were usually available. In general, the PAC3 states presented the best availability figures. CONCLUSIONS: The Ministry of Health of México will have to develop an enormous effort to overcome the obstacles related to the supply of essential drugs in primary health care units. Otherwise, all other efforts directed to meet the needs of the non-insured population will end up being useless, and enormous amounts of the already scarce resources of the health sector will be wasted since drugs are a vital component of the long chain of health care.

[Menopause: social and practical representations]. / Menopausia: representaciones sociales y prácticas.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize the meanings attributed to menopause, as a first approximation to the representational world of this event. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A qualitative study was conducted between September and October 1998, in twenty women aged 45-65 years, residents of Cuernavaca and Emiliano Zapata, municipalities of Morelos state, Mexico. Twenty in-depth interviews were conducted using a guide, to collect data on sociodemographic variables, diagnosis, feelings and emotions, changes in life style, and physiological changes. RESULTS: Findings show that menopause is represented as the end of fertility and the beginning of old age. Characterization of menopause is related to womanhood, body, and sexuality representations. CONCLUSIONS: This paper analyzes women's practices related to life experiences such as medical visits. Implications of these findings are discussed using the social construction of meanings framework.

[Assessment of a health program for the non-insured population]. / Evaluación de programa de salud para población no asegurada.

OBJECTIVE: Present the results of the evaluation of a program for the non-insured population of the four poorest states of the country implemented by the Ministry of Health of Mexico between 1991 and 1995. METHODS: The effects of the program were evaluated in three areas: i) increase in health services coverage; ii) delivery of personal health services, and iii) changes in health conditions of the target population. The extension of coverage was measured by the increase in potential access due to the construction of health infrastructure projects and the use of additional health manpower, mainly primary health care workers. For the evaluation of the impact of the program on the delivery of services, three surveys were developed: one for service utilization, another one for accessibility, and a third for quality of care. The impact on health conditions was evaluated by changes in health indicators of children under five and women of reproductive age. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The Program had a positive impact on coverage, accessibility and quality of services. Its impact on health conditions was also positive. However, these last changes cannot be attributed only to the program, but to the sum of several concurrent activities.

[Reproducibility of a questionnaire for studying climacteric]. / Reproducibilidad de un cuestionario para el estudio del climaterio.

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the reproducibility of a questionnaire concerned with the clinical and epidemiological aspects of menopause. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study population consisted of a hundred perimenopausal Mexican women seeking care at gynecology and obstetric health care services. Their participation was voluntary and they answered the same questionnaire two times with a 15-30 day lag between each application. RESULTS: The Kappa coefficient was high (0.81-1.0) for categorical variables such as: type of menstrual cycles, type of menopause, breast-feeding, use of estrogen during menopause and use of hormonal contraceptives. The Kappa coefficient was moderate (0.7-0.8) for symptoms related to menopause such as hot flashes, sweating, painful coitus, vaginal dryness and a decrease in libido. Mean differences were calculated for continuous variables such as age at menarche, age at menopause, time using estrogen and the duration of breast-feeding, the majority had a value of zero and 95% confidence intervals for these mean differences included the null value. The questionnaire also included other characteristics such as tobacco consumption and a short food frequency questionnaire, which showed high concordance (Kappa 0.7-1.0). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study show that this questionnaire has a high level of reproducibility and can be useful as a research tool to explore menopause in Mexican women.

Age of natural menopause among women in Mexico City.

OBJECTIVES: The average age of menopause among women in Mexico City was calculated, considering their reproductive and socio-demographic characteristics. The information was obtained from a population-based control group from a case-controlled study of gynecologic cancer. METHODS: Interviews were carried out with 1005 women resident in Mexico City chosen at random from a sample using the housing sample framework of the Mexico General Directorate of Epidemiology, 472 of whom had undergone a natural menopause. RESULTS: The most important results include an average age for menopause in this population of 46.5 +/- 5 years (95% C.I. 46-48) with a median of 47. Groups of women with an average early menopause were those with no formal education (1.6 years), low socio-economic level (1.3 years, P < 0.05), nulliparas (2.6 years, P < 0.05), those who had never breastfed (2.2 years, P < 0.05) and those who had not used contraceptive hormones (1.7 years, P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: This phenomenon must be documented in Mexico because of its strong links with the morbidity and mortality of the growing number of women who are reaching advanced ages and whose survival is calculated at 30 years after menopause.